TOXIC SLUDGE IS GOOD FOR YOU

       LIES, DAMN LIES AND the Public Relations Industry
               by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
             
                                           A must read                   

                 http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy.html
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Administrator:
Ten years after the book Toxic Sludge is Good for You was published, scientists, educators and
government officials are still embarrassing themselves by repeating the PR lies.  

The first unwritten law of the United States for the general public is that:  Ignorance of the
law is no excuse for violating the laws. The second unwritten law is that: Federal Agency
guidelines (regulations, Standards) for corporations and municipalities give some
leeway for violating the laws within specified limits which may or may not be enforced.  

We are collecting outrageous statements. We will start with a few of EPA's.
1.     EPA PR statement: "The WSTB report confirms the basis of Federal policy that properly
   treated and managed wastewater effluents and biosolids can be safely and effectively used
   in food crop production, while presenting negligible risk to the crops, consumers, and the
   environment."
   
T.    Actually, this unscientific literature review assumed federal law and common law works.
 
   Ken Arnold (Mo) and John H. Dunn (EPA) state:  "Sludge that is not used as biosolids must
  be disposed in a permitted sludge disposal facility.
 There are two types of disposal — surface disposal and incineration. Surface disposing
 sludge requires a solid waste disposal permit under the Missouri Solid Waste Management
 Law and regulations, 10 CSR 80-3. This applies to sanitary landfills, sludge monofills,
 sludge disposal lagoons and any other type of sludge disposal on land."

  Federal Law and guidlelines state: Exposure to the chemicals and pathogens in sludge may
 kill you or cause serious health problems through air, water or food.. 40 CFR 503.9(t),
 RCRA and CWA.

2.     EPA completed a 14 pathway risk assessment to prove sludge/biosolids was safe according
 to the PR lies.

T.     EPA did not do a risk assessment for any of the pollutants in sludge/biosolids.

3.     None of the pollutants in sludge/biosolids cause or induce cancer according to the risk
  assessment PR lies.

T.    EPA published a list of 21 carcinogens in sludge/biosolids in 1989. Five of them are cancer
inducing agents when inhaled in dust.  Federal Register 54, P. 5777     

4.     All chemicals in sludge are fully researched for safety according to the PR lies.

T.    EPA claims it does not have data on most of the chemicals in sludge/biosolids to make a
determination of a safe level in sludge/biosolids.. Federal Register 58, p. 9384

5.    The nine inorganic chemicals (metals) in sludge was all EPA was required to regulate
according to the PR lies.  § 503.13   Pollutant limits.

T     In 1993 EPA wrote, The Agency concluded that Congress intended that EPA develop the
 part 503 pollutant limits for a broader range of substances that might interfere with  the use
 and\disposal of sewage sludge, not just the 126 priority pollutants"?    (FR. 58, 32, p. 9327)   

6.    The PR lie, "In later stages of wastewater treatment, the sludge is processed into a purified
  and  nutrient-rich organic material known as a biosolids. Scientists have long urged farmers
 to spread the substance on their fields but the practice remains controversial, says
 McMahon."  UW-Madison: Scientists Probe CWD's Spread Through Soils  7/11/2005

T.     There is no 503 treatment process that purifies sludge to create biosolids.  § 503.32  
   Pathogens.

7.    D. Roe Darnell, Ed.D, President of Taft College in Kern County writes, "The company
 processes residual waste in an environmentally responsible way without endangering, in any
 fashion, our precious water table."

T.    A cheap PR statement for $25,000.00 a year. Assuming that SYNAGRO always complies
 with the part 503 guidelines, SYNAGRO composts sludge/biosolids for unlabelled use with
 undetectable levels of disease causing organisms. EPA and Congress states that exposure
 to the chemicals and disease causing organism through the air, water and food will cause
  death, disease, cancer, etc. See item 1.

8.    PR statement "We had absolutely no intent on causing this kind of problem," Tilton said. "It’s
 important to us that we are environmentally responsible."
 The sludge was sprayed on the Fayette County field from Jan. 19 to Feb. 2, records show.
 Bowman said it ran into a ditch that drained into Paint Creek during a warm spell and a
 rainstorm.

T.    If there was no intention why wasn't  503.14(b) followed.  "Bulk sewage sludge shall not be
 applied to agricultural land, forest, a public contact site, or a reclamation site that is flooded,
 frozen, or snow-covered so  that the bulk sewage sludge enters a wetland or other waters of
 the United States." (EPA only covers rainstorms when biosolids is disposed: (2) The run-off
  collection system for an active sewage sludge unit shall have the capacity to handle run-off
  from a 24-hour, 25-year storm event.)

According to a transcript, In a recent TV debate in Kern County, California UDSDA's Rufus
Chaney made three PR statements without hardly taking a breathe.

9.    Chaney's  PR statement, "The 503 Rule, Congress made a law.  EPA was --
developed a regulation to comply with the federal law to protect human -- humans in the
environment when biosolids are used on land."

T.   The Law to protect humans was RCRA. EPA developed 503 regulation based on exclusions
  in federal law - domestic sewage
 exclusion (RCRA), statutory agricultural runoff exclusion (CWA), and commercial fertilizer
 exclusion (CERCLA).

10.   Chaney 's PR statement, "They examined the count, the metals in the organic
 compounds that  were believed to comprise the highest risks and -- and developed
 regulations so that you can apply at least a thousand tons per foot -- either farm it for
 hundreds of years; and the implication, based on all the science, is we can farm it forever."

T.    In 1995, Walker (EPA) and Chaney (USDA) stated in the Guide to the 503 risk assessment
 that no risk assessment was completed for any of the metals or organics included in 503.

11.   Chaney's PR statement, "We say unequivocally it's a sustainable practice
  because we have achieved industrial-free treatment."

T.    Perhaps he meant industrial pretreatment. According to NY documents, "After pretreatment,
 either through local limits or categorical standards, 83% to 84% of New York City Sludges
 would still be unacceptable for land application. The reason for this is that non-domestic
 sources of pollutant loading, not industrial sources, are primarily responsible for interfering
 with this sludge use." (Wat. Sci. Tech. (1987) Vol. 19, No. 9. p. 142)

12.   Rufus CHANEY:(USDA) PR statement " -- the report that she just quoted, in its summary,
  has a statement, an overarching finding, that no matter what she said, we don't have any
  evidence of an adverse effect of biosolids used under the -- the 503 Rule. They don't have
  adverse effects."

T.     The point being made, according to scientists Linaker &  Smedley . "Overall, only a small
    proportion of the population is employed in agriculture, so respiratory disease in
   farmers is not a major public health issue."

   Chaney and US Agencies simply refuse to admit there are studies which show adverse
  effects as could be expected based on the definition of a pollutant in 40 CFR 503.9(t)

   Farmers and farm workers are also at greater risk than the general population for certain
  cancers. Significant increases in cancers of the stomach, brain, prostate, and skin, as well
  as leukemia, non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and multiple myeloma have been found in the
  farming population (Blair et al. 1992). Increased mortality due to kidney, bladder, prostate,
  lymphoma, and large bowel cancers has also been identified among farmers. Although the
  only direct link found to date between exposures to an agricultural environment and cancer
  is skin cancer, exposure to pesticides, chemical solvents, engine exhausts, animal viruses,
  and other substances commonly found in an industrialized farm operation are suspects.

  In the U.S., some scientists acknowledge that  chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and
  Organic Toxic Dust Syndrome (OTDS) (Farmers Lung) are hazards to farmers health, but
  fail to note organic toxic dust in sludge/biosolids on farms and lawns may also cause
  EXTRINSIC ALLERGIC ALVEOLITIS.

  By 1986 Australia recognized that EXTRINSIC ALLERGIC ALVEOLITIS, a respiratory
  disease, is caused by fertilizer containing microorganisms and sewage sludge/biosolids.
   Canadian OSHA even has a name for it, Sewage Sludge Disease.